Friday, January 16, 2009

Adventures in pocket pets

It all started the first part of December '08 when Tucker informed me that he wanted Santa to bring him a baby alligator. I tried to dissuade him. I tried to educate him about the needs of alligators. I finally explained that I was doubtful Santa could get a baby alligator and "just in case" he should probably have a second choice for his wish list. He thought a minute and told me, "if Santa can't find a baby alligator I want a baby mouse". Now that's more like it. Santa can surely get his mittens on a baby mouse. So about three days before Christmas, when everything was all ready for them at home, I went to town and returned home with Two black,adorable, baby mice. They were actually really cute and they seemed happy in their new home. I was really excited. We were keeping them in our bedroom so they would be a surprise on Christmas morning. After i got them all settled and showed them to Thadeus I shut the bedroom door and went on with my evening. Just an hour or so later the boys were playing and I heard one of them say they needed something. Tucker told Rollin to go get it from my room. Rollin ran into my room and ran back out and told Tucker he had to go in there. Suddenly it occurred to me that I did not locked the door! Tucker came running down the hallway and said "I didn't know we had a new pet". I was crushed and to think a short time earlier I had been so proud of myself for pulling everything together and being so sneaky. So after consulting with my mom We decided to go ahead and tell Tucker and Rollin the truth, that Santa had sent the baby mice early via elves because it was much safer. But that we had been instructed by Santa to keep them hidden until Christmas morning. So they couldn't have them until the next morning because I had to check with Santa first. The next morning Tucker and Rollin and Fynn got to meet the mice. They loved them! It was surprisingly easy to tell them apart. One had a crinkled ear and was a bit smaller, Tucker named him Cole. The other had big ears and was a bit longer and more thin, Tucker named him Silky. They were doing great and Tucker was so good with them. He cleaned the cage and fed and watered them. He loved spending time with them. Then we realized that Cole was not moving as fast or as much as he had been. We were a little worried especially since Cole was the favorite.He was more cuddly and enjoyed being picked up more. A couple days later I told Tucker that I was concerned that he might not make it. Tucker took extra good care of him then. Then In the middle of the afternoon Tucker ran to me saying "something is wrong with Cole, he's all bloody", well bloody was an understatement. Cole had died and Silky had eaten his entire face and bottom jaw! It was horrible and poor Tucker is the one who found him. After some of the sadness was gone we started talking about getting another mouse or two. So We went to the pet store. All they had were white mice with red eyes and Tucker was thrilled. That was exactly what he wanted, Rollin however did not like them and began to cry. He was very sad that they didn't have any better mice. Eventually he came around and picked one for his very own. When we got home I went straight to the cage to be sure it was ready for the new mice and to my shock Silky was not so silky, in fact totally stiff. Apparently eating your dead brother is not good for your own health, who new? So now we had to sanitize everything before the new mice could even get out of their boxes. Then I helped the boys get the mice into their new homes but these little guys creep me out! First they have red eyes, that's just creepy, then I realized that they are really fast and jumpy. In fact I was holding Shorty, that's Rollins, and it jumped off my hand, Jumped!! Then I noticed they are really twitchy, and smell kinda bad. Fast forward to this morning, I was laying in bed and I heard Tucker say "the same thing happened to Rollins mouse that happened to Cole" . Turns out It wasn't really the same, In fact I think this time Sammy, that's Tuckers mouse, actually killed Shorty. So I am pretty much over the mouse thing, I think we will be moving on to hamsters or a snake maybe. Something less cannibalistic. But not so fast we still have Sammy the killer mouse. I wonder how long he will last. ......